Traffic on a busy Saudi street came to a standstill for several minutes after a pretty unveiled girl wearing much make-up emerged from a nearby shopping mall and tried to cross the road, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Scores young men in their cars chased the girl, unleashed their vehicle horns, whistled to her and begged her to stop but she continued to ignore them.

The big line of vehicles, mostly four wheel cars, brought the whole traffic on the street in the western town of Taif to a standstill.

“Many teenagers in their cars caused a big traffic jam on the main road in Taif just after an unveiled girl, wearing exciting clothes, was passing there,” the Arabic language daily Kabar said.

Egypt: President elect Mohammed Morsi says he will try to free the World Trade Centre bomber

Mr Morsi attempted to burnish his Muslim Brotherhood credentials by pledging to work for the freedom of Omar Abdul-Rahman, the notorious "Blind Sheikh" jailed for life in the United States in connection with the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993.

"I will do everything in my power to secure the freedom of detainees, including Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman," he told a huge crowd of supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the eve of his inauguration.

Abdul-Rahman gained infamy after Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, the militant group he led, killed 58 Western tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor in 1997. Six Britons, including a five-year-old girl were among the dead after gunmen embarked on a 45-minute shooting spree inside the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Sharing the leadership of Islamist militancy in Egypt with Ayman al-Zawahiri, now the head of al-Qaeda, he forged a close relationship with Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

China: Passengers and crew members injured as they foil an attempt by six Muslims to hijack a plane

Sky marshals and passengers aboard a plane in China's restive western province of Xinjiang on Friday overpowered a group of six people attempting to hijack the aircraft, official media reported.

Minutes after the Tianjin Airlines flight with 101 people aboard took off from the city of Hetian in southwestern Xinjiang, three passengers in the front and three in the back stood up and announced a hijacking, according to the reports.

They were tackled by police and passengers and tied up with belts before the plane returned to the airport and landed safely. Several passengers and crew members were injured subduing the alleged hijackers, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

A spokeswoman for Xinjiang's government said six suspects are in custody, all of them members of the Uighur ethnic group, a Muslim Turkic minority.

Iran: New government-sponsored Salman Rushdie computer game may allow Muslims to murder author

Novelist Salman Rushdie has so far escaped the decades-old call for his death in the real world, but in the video game universe he may not be so lucky. This week the government-sponsored Iranian Islamic Association of Students announced that a Salman Rushdie computer game is in development.

Not much is yet known about the storyline for the game, but the matter-of-fact title — “The Stressful Life of Salman Rushdie and Implementation of His Verdict” — suggests that players may get to follow through on Ayatollah Khomeini’s 23-year-old call for the author’s head.

Officials are hoping the concept will attract younger Iranians, whom they aim to educate about the “sin” committed by Rushdie — an Indian-born British author who spent years in hiding after being accused of committing blasphemy and profaning the religion of Islam with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. Speaking with the semi-official Mehr news agency, student association representative Mohammed-Taqi Fakhrian said, “We felt we should find a way to introduce our third and fourth generation to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and its importance.”

Egyptians celebrate announcement of first democratically elected leader by sexually assaulting UK journalist

A British journalist was brutally sexually assaulted in Cairo's Tahrir Square as thousands of Egyptians gathered to celebrate the nation's presidential election results.

Natasha Smith, 21, has detailed how she was violently attacked by a 'group of animals' who stripped her naked, scratched and clenched her breasts and 'forced their fingers inside her'.

She only escaped by donning men's clothes and a burka and being whisked away to safety by two other men.

Writing on her blog, she said: 'All I could see was leering faces, more and more faces sneering and jeering as I was tossed around like fresh meat among starving lions.'

The incident occured on Sunday when Egyptians flooded the area celebrating the announcement Mohammed Morsi would be the nation's first democratically elected leader.

Smith, who will graduate with an MA in International Journalism from University College Falmouth in August, was in Tahrir to film the crowd for a documentary on women's rights.. . .
Smith is not the first western woman to be assaulted while working in Egypt. CBS News' Lara Logan was attacked during the 2011 revolution. She said 'men in the crowd had raped me with their hands'.

Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy was also assaulted by Egyptian security forces in November.

And Smith has vowed that the abuse would not stop her from exposing the wider issue of sexual assault in the country.

Iran: Drug trade emanates from "teachings of the Talmud... whose objective is the destruction of the world"

The teachings of the Jewish book of law, the Talmud, are a driving force behind the international drugs trade, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said in comments reported on Wednesday.

Rahimi’s remarks, at an international anti-drug conference in Tehran attended by many foreign diplomats on Tuesday, were a rare diatribe by an Iranian official targeting the Jewish faith, rather than the state of Israel.

The remarks were immediately slammed by Israel’s foreign minister, who also criticised the United Nations and European Union for sending representatives to the conference.

“The spread of narcotics in the world emanates from the teachings of the Talmud... whose objective is the destruction of the world,” Rahimi said in comments published by the official website of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and state media.

US: Muslim who plotted to blow up NYC's largest synagogue, planned on disguising himself as a Jew

Ferhani, a 27 year-old Algerian immigrant, and co-defendant Mohamed Mamdouh were arrested after police say Ferhani purchased three semi-automatic pistols, 150 rounds of ammunition and an inert grenade from an undercover detective in May 2011, following a seven month investigation of the two.

The men are accused of plotting a violent revenge attack in the name of oppressed Muslims the world over. Authorities say Fehrani suggested growing a beard and payot, the side curls worn by Hasidic Jews, so he could sneak into a Manhattan synagogue and "take out the whole building".. . .
The police claim he was motivated by a hatred for Jews and expressed a desire to destroy the Empire State Building and churches, as well as a synagogue. In addition to the weapons he acquired leading up to his arrest, police say Ferhani also sought a bullet-proof vest, a silencer and a police radio.

The men were charged under previously unused state terrorism statute passed after September 11, with charges that included second-degree conspiracy as a crime of terrorism, second-degree conspiracy as a hate crime and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism.

The home is empty now, but clothes still strewn across the floor reveal a growing trend among the wealthy elite in Saudi Arabia and foreigners, who indulge frequently in what are becoming known as “sex parties” in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

This couple, who hosts a monthly “event,” as they call it, told Bikyamasr.com that without freedom to go out on the town, couples have come together to have sex parties.

“It is something we do and we are not ashamed of it,” said 32-year-old Tara, who asked that her complete identity remain obscure. For her, it is an opportunity “to find out more about ourselves sexually.”

Her husband, Mark, nods in agreement. They said that for their “event” some 5 couples come to their home, strip naked and partake in what can only be defined as an “orgy.”

“What we do is we put all our names in a hat and draw out one woman and one man, then we continue until all the names are counted and then we begin,” Mark said, adding that all couples have agreed and are willing participants.

“We would never allow someone to be coerced into this kind of thing,” he added.

The swingers party then erupts into sexual escapades, with couple indulging in each other’s bodies, and Tara admits that sometimes couples join together for “for intimate and intriguing experiences.”

Germany: European Islamic group praises Holocaust-denier, issues a statement mourning his death

The Brussels-based Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) issued a statement mourning the death on June 13 of French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, prompting fierce criticism on Saturday from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s office in Paris.

According to the president of the Islamic organization, the “FIOE received with great sorrow the news of the death of the French thinker Roger Garaudy, known to the world as a distinguished philosopher with a life of diverse contributions and interactions across the world.”

The FIOE statement, which was posted on the group’s website, added that Garaudy was a “great thinker” and “whether people agree or disagree with pioneering thinkers, they cannot in any way ignore the vibrant ideological and human life of a thinker, who spent close to a whole century of our lifetime, with a keen concern for achieving understanding between nations, and interaction between civilizations.”

Garaudy, a communist who converted to Islam in 1982, advocated a radical anti-Zionist policy and authored The Founding Myths of Modern Israel, which denied the Holocaust. He argued that Jews who were deported to extermination camps under the Third Reich were not intentionally murdered.

In 1998, a French court convicted him of racial incitement and he was given a suspended sentence for his denial of the Holocaust.

"We can't help looking at the beautiful women..." Wine, women and song tempt Mali's pious Muslims

Wine, women and song are putting Malian Islamists to the test as they talk about the future of their divided country with regional mediators in Burkina Faso.

"The problem is that in our hotel we can't help looking at the beautiful women and listening to the music," sighed Algabass Ag Intalla, a member of the hardline Ansar Dine, one of the groups controlling northern Mali since March.

"It's a real test for us Muslims to have to look at all that as well," he added, pointing to rows of alcoholic drinks in full view from the lobby.

An Ansar Dine delegation arrived in Ouagadougou on June 15 at the invitation of Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, named chief mediator in the Malian crisis by the Economic Community of West African States.

The Islamists met Compaore on June 18 and have since been continuing talks with his aides. The Burkina government has put them up in a luxury hotel in the well-heeled Ouaga 2000 district.. . .
It is a sharp contrast from the situation in northern Mali, where Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups, including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), are trying to impose Muslim Sharia law by force.

Their ultra-conservative doctrine punishes smokers, drinkers, adulterers and even football fans. On Wednesday, in the desert city of Timbuktu, a couple who had a child out of wedlock were given 100 lashes.

UK: Muslim couple keep a 10-year-old deaf and mute orphan as a slave, regularly slap, beat and rape her

A man has denied forcing a young girl to live in the cellar of his home where she was beaten, raped and treated as his virtual slave.

Ilyas Ashar, 83, rejected claims he abused the girl and told a court she was “happy” to work for him and he treated her like a daughter.

The alleged victim, an orphan from Pakistan who is profoundly deaf and cannot speak, was used and abused by Ashar and his wife due to her vulnerability, a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester has heard.

She was first trafficked into the UK in June 2000 when aged around 10, though her exact age is not known.

And for almost a decade the girl, now aged 19 or 20, was forced to live and work in the cellar, where she was locked-up each night and slept on a concrete floor.

Although supposed to be employed as a domestic help, she was never paid and just given food and lodging at their home in Cromwell Road, Eccles in Salford, the court heard.

Kept as a virtual prisoner, the girl was made to cook, clean, do the washing and ironing for the Ashars and clean the houses and cars of their family and friends, the court heard.

She was also kept in the cellar to work for hours packing football shirts, clothes and mobile phone covers.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has told the jury she was regularly slapped, beaten and raped.

Bosnia: Two Muslim brothers plead guilty, sentenced to six years in prison for war crimes against Serbs

A local court on Friday sentenced two Bosnian Muslim brothers to six years in prison for killing two Serb civilians during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

“Saban and Elvir Djelibasic ... committed a war crime against the civilian population and the chamber condemns them both to a six-year prison sentence,” judge Darko Samardzic of Bosnia's war crimes court said.

The brothers, both in their forties, had pleaded guilty to the charges.

The men were both members of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army during the war.

Myanmar: Security forces arrest 60 Muslims in Rakhine State for the murder of twelve Buddhists

Burmese security forces have arrested 60 people following the latest round of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in western Rakhine state, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said in an article on Thursday.

The arrest came after security forces investigated the deaths of 12 people on Tuesday in Yathetaung Township, said an official and local residents.

Those arrested were sent to the state capital of Sittwe, said RFA.

Hla Myint, the Yathetaung Rakhine Nationalities Development Party chairman, confirmed the arrests, saying the 60 were taken in after police and military security found bodies buried in Anautpyin village and questioned local people.

“Sixty of those who killed and buried [the victims] were arrested and sent to Sittwe today,” he told RFA.

The clashes broke out between Rohingya Muslim villagers from Anautpyin and Rakhine Buddhist villagers from Kutaung early Tuesday morning after several days of relative calm in the region. Sectarian violence has erupted in different townships since May 28..

Mizzima reported on Monday that 22 rioters were arrested over the weekend, according to state-run media.

The arrests came as authorities patrolled Chienkhali village to maintain stability, said the New Light of Myanmar. Those arrested carried knives, rods and sharpened sticks, police said.

The Jakarta Police have promised to act firmly against entertainment establishments that violate opening hours during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts in the middle of next month.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Elfian, the police’s director of sociocultural affairs, said on Tuesday that the police would prioritize a policy of engagement with the businesses.

“We hope the management will abide by the rules,” he said. “If they don’t, then we will take action in coordination with the city tourism and culture office.”. . .
Arie Budhiman, head of the Jakarta Culture and Tourism Office, said the latest data indicated about 1,200 establishments would be affected. He added that his office would work closely with the police and the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) to enforce the closures and restricted hours.

“The rules will be firmly implemented and we will be assisted by Satpol PP and the Jakarta Police in enforcing the regulations for the sake of allowing Muslims to practice their faith in comfort,” he said.

He added that establishments found violating the rules would be given warnings, temporarily closed or have their permits revoked. Last year, only seven establishments were given a warning, while one was sealed off for the month.

A Muslim couple were assembling components of a home-made bomb to attack Jewish neighbourhoods after becoming radicalised by al-Qaida propaganda on the internet, a court heard on Wednesday.

Mohammed Sajid Khan, 33, and his wife, Shasta, 38, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, bought substances and equipment from supermarkets to assemble an improvised explosive device to launch a terrorist attack after carrying out visits to potential Jewish targets in Manchester, the city's crown court heard.

Bobbie Cheema, the prosecutor, at Manchester crown court, said: "Perhaps it can be summarised this way: it was jihad at home. Between them they acquired substances, common or garden, that can be purchased in supermarkets, equipment and information of use that would help them to make explosives, and began the process of assembling an improvised explosive device."

The couple also carried out "multiple reconnaissance" trips to Jewish areas of Salford or Manchester, it was alleged.

Behind their "apparent normality of daily life", Khan, an unemployed car valeter, and his wife, a hairdresser, planned to carry out "jihad at home", Cheema told the court.

The couple were only stopped by chance after a minor domestic row led to police being called to their home in Oldham.

Shasta decided to inform the police after her brother told officers went to the house: "I think he's a home-grown terrorist."

Her husband has already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to terrorism offences.

Iraq: Latest in a long line of anti-Shi'ite suicide bombings kill 22 people, wound 50 others

A suicide bomber killed 22 people at a Shiite gathering in central Iraq on Monday, officials said, in the latest in a string of attacks against the Shiite majority that has left dozens dead.

The bomber targeted mourners in central Baquba, north of Baghdad, a police colonel said, adding that among the casualties were an army first lieutenant, four police officers and seven other security forces members.

Dr Ahmed Ibrahim at Baquba General Hospital confirmed the facility had received 22 bodies and 50 wounded people.. . .
Monday's blasts are just the latest in a series of attacks against the country's Shiite majority.

On Saturday, two car bombs targeted pilgrims in Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding dozens on the peak day of commemorations for the 799 death of Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered Shiite imams.

On Wednesday, 72 people were killed in attacks across Iraq, some of which targeted Shiites. The attacks were later claimed by Al-Qaeda's front group, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

They included a car bomb that killed seven people on the outskirts of Kadhimiyah, the site of the Imam Kadhim shrine, and another blast in Karrada in central Baghdad amid Shiite pilgrims' food tents that caused 16 fatalities.

On June 4, 25 people were killed in a suicide car bombing at the headquarters of the Shiite religious endowment in Baghdad, in an attack also claimed by the ISI.

UK: Gang of Muslim youths attack and almost kill a vulnerable mentally-challenged man with bricks

A vulnerable man with mental health difficulties told a jury he feared he would be killed when a gang of teenagers hurled bricks at him in a mob attack.

Matthew Ellis underwent emergency brain surgery after he was struck on the head with one of the missiles.

He also suffered a fractured arm when he was hit with his own metal detector which one of his attackers wielded like a club, Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.. . .
Four Frizinghall teenagers are on trial for wounding with intent.

They are Amar Shah, 18, of Lynthorne Road; Majid Ali, 19, of Aireville Road; and two 16-year-old youths, who cannot be identified for legal reasons. They all plead not guilty.

The attack happened on Easter Monday, April 25, last year, shortly after 4pm.. . .
Mr Topham said the complainant suffered a Y-shaped wound to his head which penetrated his skin, into the membrane surrounding the brain, and he later needed an operation to open up his skull.

Mr Topham said it was a joint attack, which was witnessed by eight-year-old twins.

Mr Ellis told police he had taken a short cut and felt intimidated walking past the youths.

Google removes 640 videos from YouTube in second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism.

Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos.

The web giant has previously been criticised by politicians in Britain and the United States for hosting extremist propaganda on YouTube, its video sharing website, including as the sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior al-Qaeda cleric, who killed by a US drone strike last year.

Awlaki’s online sermons inspired Roshonara Choudhry, 21, to become the first al-Qaeda fanatic to attempt a political assassination in the UK when she stabbed MP Stephen Timms at his constituency surgery in May.

Even after Choudhry was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey, more than 5,000 postings featuring Awlaki’s videos remained live on YouTube. In one sermon, titled 44 Ways to Support Jihad, he tells followers: “Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim.

"The hatred of kuffar [non-believers] is a central element of our military creed. Jihad [holy war] must be practiced by the child... Arms training is an essential part of preparation for jihad.”

An Ethiopian security officer with the United Nations faced up to 10 years in jail after a court in Addis Ababa found him guilty Monday of "participating in a terrorist organisation."

"The defendant has not convinced us that he did not commit a crime... he's guilty," judge Mulugeta Kidane said.

Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan, who was based in Ethiopia's troubled southeastern Ogaden region, was charged last July with having links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) [a Somali 'separatist' group designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government], a secessionist rebel group.

He is charged along with Sherif Baido, whom the charge sheet lists as a senior member of the ONLF and was convicted on the same charge in absentia, according to Mulugeta.

The two men face five to ten years in prison. The court is expected to deliver a sentence on Friday.

A bomb explosion targeting pro-government tribesmen killed 26 people and wounded dozens more at a crowded bus terminal in the Landi Kotal sub-division of Khyber Agency on Saturday.

“The bomb was planted in a pick-up truck parked near the Zakhakhel bus stand in Landi Kotal Bazaar,” said Khalid Kundi, the assistant political agent for the region.

The blast appeared to have been aimed at members of Zakhakhel tribe, who have formed a militia to fight alongside security forces against powerful local warlord Mangal Bagh Afridi, he added.

The banned Lashkar-e-Islam extremist group, which Mangal Bagh leads, was virtually ruling the neighbouring Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency until 2009 when paramilitary troops routed his fighters from the region. However, the notorious warlord and hundreds of his loyalists are still holed up in their last bastion – the Tirah Valley.

Officials said that several shops were damaged and destroyed in the blast, which also destroyed vehicles parked at the terminal.

Khyber Agency’s Political Agent Mutahir Zeb confirmed the death toll. He said that there were 18 bodies at the Landi Kotal Hospital while an other eight victims died while being taken for treatment to Peshawar. The dead included three children aged nine, 10 and 12, he added.

Most of the victims were shopkeepers, according to Kundi.

In all, 62 people were wounded in the explosion, said Dr Azam Wazir, the medical superintendent of Landi Kotal Hospital. Of them, 32 were shifted to Hyatabad Medical Complex (HMC) and another eight, including four children, were ferried to Lady Reading Hospital.

Suspected Muslim separatists have killed three soldiers and wounded six others in an attack in southern Thailand.

Police Col. Samneang Luejeangkam says the attackers hurled a grenade into a school in Yala province's Krongpinang district on Saturday while soldiers were taking part in a daily briefing in the schoolyard. Soldiers guard state schools in the area because teachers are often targets of the separatists, who regard them as representatives of the government.

A mob attacked a police station in Quetta on Saturday, demanding a man detained for allegedly desecrating the Quran be handed over, leaving at least two children dead and 19 with gunshot wounds.

Violence erupted after police arrested a “mentally retarded” man said to have burnt pages of the holy book in Kuchlak, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of Quetta, senior administration official Qambar Dashti told AFP.

“Chanting the man should be killed for blasphemy, they later entered the police station and started firing,” he said, adding that a senior police officer, SP Saddar Malik Irshad narrowly escaped while his police guard was wounded in the shooting.

Jonathan Halevi writing in Shalom Toronto brings us news of the Muslim Community's latest contribution to Toronto's Mosaic of Diversity.

Local Arab Rag "Meshwar" has published a love poem to terrorists one of whom was a suicide bomber. Read the full story in the jpeg [Poem "in context" here]

Said Kamal Hanani, a PFLP activist. Said Hanani, a suicide bomber, blew himself up on December 25, 2003, near a bus stop east of Tel Aviv (on Jabotinsky Street in Bnei Brak). The suicide bombing killed four Israelis (three soldiers and a civilian) and wounded 24 other Israelis.

Ghana: Mother finds 12-year-old daughter in a mosque, sexually abused, lying naked next to a man

A Kumasi Circuit Court presided over by Emmanuel Amo Yartey has sentenced a 42-year-old ex-convict to 15 years’ imprisonment for defiling a 12-year-old girl in a mosque.. . .

On June 4, 2012, at about 5:30pm, according to the prosecutor, the victim misbehaved, left home and passed the night at the mosque where the convict was occupying, for fear of being punished.

Chief Inspector Bebli said the convict took advantage of the situation in which the minor found herself and sexually abused her twice the same night.

After satisfying his libido, he gave the victim GH¢1.00 and warned her not to disclose the act to anyone.

According to the prosecutor, on June 5, 2012, at about 5:30am, the mother of the victim went for her usual morning prayers at the mosque where she surprisingly found her daughter lying naked beside the convict.

When her mother interrogated her, she confessed her sexual escapade with the convict. The mother then lodged a complaint with the police, leading to the convict’s arrest.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Tuesday that migrant construction workers in Qatar, which is preparing to host the 2022 World Cup, risk serious abuse amounting to ‘forced labour’.

“The government needs to ensure that the cutting edge, high-tech stadiums it’s planning to build for World Cup fans are not built on the backs of abused and exploited workers,” said HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson in a statement released at a news conference in Doha.

The New York-based watchdog said construction workers, mostly South Asians, “risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labour,” as it released its report: ‘Building a better World Cup: Protecting migrant workers in Qatar ahead of Fifa 2022.’. . .
It added: “Workers reported a range of problems, including unpaid wages, illegal salary deductions, crowded and unsanitary labour camps, and unsafe working conditions.”. . .

Qatar last year became the first Arab country to be awarded rights to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

Syria: US encouraging more massacres, supporting armed terrorist groups operating in the country

Syria has accused the United States of encouraging more massacres in the country and of meddling in its internal affairs, saying Washington supports armed terrorist groups operating in Syria.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the US is covering up terrorist crimes and distorting the facts about what is happening in Syria.

"The US administration is pushing forth with its flagrant interference in Syria's internal affairs and its backing of armed terrorist groups," read the statement. It added, "US statements distort the truth and what is happening on the ground while encouraging armed terrorist groups to carry out more massacres… not only in al-Haffeh but throughout the country.”

On US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s remarks about the possibility of a massacre occurring in al-Haffeh, the statement noted that US officials are ignoring the armed groups' attacks in al-Haffeh.

The Syrian government also reaffirmed its commitment to the joint UN-Arab League peace plan, brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.

There are reports of fierce clashes leading to the burning of cars and other property in the Hohoe municipality where Muslim youth have clashed with the traditional leaders of the area.

The renewed clashes were as a result of the exhumation of the corpse of the Chief Imam of the area who was buried yesterday in line with the tenets of the Islam religion.

There has been simmering tension in the Gbi Traditional area for some time now. It all started when a 21 year old boy was electrocuted and rushed to the Hohoe Government Hospital where he later died.

The youth of the area angered by the death of the young man vandalized property at the Hospital, accusing it of not taking good care of the young lad.

The young man was later buried and reports have it that his body was exhumed by some Muslim youth in the Zongo where he was buried.

After a series of confrontations the Paramount Chief of the Gbi Traditional Area Togbiga Gabusu issued a letter to the Zongo Chief warning that henceforth no Muslim should bury their dead on the land.

It is however unclear if this order in the letter was due to the earlier exhumation of the 21 year old but upon receipt, the Zongo Chiefs pleaded with Togbiga for clemency but he refused.

The Chief Imam was thereafter buried on Sunday, defying the orders of Togbiga Gabusu and in the wee hours of Monday the Chief Imam’s body had been exhumed and dumped on the Jasikan road.

This led to the current unrest which is causing fear in the area. The Police who are currently on the ground have been totally outnumbered by the youth and some citizens are calling for reinforcement for the security services.

Turkey: New law requires Islamic prayer rooms in all shopping malls, movie theaters & other public spaces

New law requires Islamic prayer rooms in all shopping malls, movie theaters, and other public spaces such as theaters and operas. And the self-described "liberal Muslim" Mustafa Akyol is just fine with these new developments, which once again manifest Turkey's discarding of secularism and gallop toward Sharia. Akyol praises "the rightful focus of Erdoğan and other conservatives on matters of religious freedom." (Apparently Akyol, like the mainstream media, would term pro-Sharia forces to be "conservative," while simultaneously labeling those who oppose Sharia as also "conservative.")

Akyol has revealed his true colors before, notably when he declared his support for the jihad flotilla that Turkey sent against Israel. The Turkish columnist Burak Bekdil has characterized the "liberal" Akyol as a pro-Sharia, pro-Erdogan Islamic supremacist. But undoubtedly a sly one. Bekdil says that Akyol is working to further "Islamists' global ambition to play the modern day, Muslim Trojan Horse at the gates of western civilization."

Consistent with that, Akyol here says that an Islamic Turkey is coming and that Turkish secularism cannot be salvaged, but that Israelis shouldn't be concerned: as long as they stop defending themselves against the Gaza jihadists and jihad flotillas, all will be well.

It would be refreshing if the many, many Americans who were taken in a few years back by Akyol's "moderate" act would reconsider now. But I am not holding my breath.

Commentary: Turkey continues its irrevocable slide from a secular state to becoming an Islamic theocracy

Modern Turkey bears little resemblance to the secular republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Over the past decade, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been transforming Turkey into an Islamic state. The most recent example of this has been the arrest of an internationally acclaimed Turkish classical pianist for insulting Islam. Fazil Say said “the Koran says there are rivers of drinks in heaven, that makes it sound like a pub, while the beautiful women available there make it sound like a brothel.” He could receive a jail sentence of up to 18 months.

Meanwhile Turkish prisons are filling up with political prisoners who have been charged with crimes such as treason and terrorism. The Turkish military used to see themselves as the guardians of the secular republic. Now dozens of senior military officers, including former generals are facing trials for having acted against previous Islamist governments. These actions pose a direct threat to Israel, as influential secular individuals, who tend to be pro-Israel, are being silenced and replaced with radical Islamists who are anti-Israel.

In this atmosphere of increasing Turkish hostility towards Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has sensibly refused to apologize to Turkey over the Gaza flotilla incident. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan recently continued his anti-Israel rhetoric by saying “Palestinian men, women and children that have done nothing wrong are being killed wholesale or held in the largest prison”.

The media and the Israeli government have failed to hold Erdogan to account by pointing out Turkish hypocrisy. Yes, there is a country in the Middle East that has committed a genocide, continues an illegal occupation and discriminates against its citizens. Turkey committed a genocide against the Armenians, illegally occupies northern Cyprus and discriminates against its Kurdish minority. The Israeli government should follow the example of 21 countries and respond to the next Turkish incitement by recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Canada: Textbooks preaching violence & antisemitism used in Farsi classes funded by public school system

While Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes Iran is the biggest threat to world peace and security, some Canadian school kids taking Persian weekend classes, study from Iranian text books depicting Jews as "sons of apes", Canadian network Sun News reported.

In an interview with The Source, Director of the International and Terrorist Intelligence Program at INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. David Harris noted that textbooks issued by the Iranian Education Ministry have made their way into public Canadian schools.

"Ottawa Carlton Public School Board, a publically funded school board had until 2011 allowed its courses in Farsi on the weekend to use Iranian Ministry of Education textbooks." Harris noted.

"These textbooks included hate literature that included the glorifying of a 13-year old child soldier who had strapped a grenade to himself and blown himself up under an Iraqi tank during the Iran-Iraq war. We've also seen multiple pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei."

Syrian rebels/terrorists military chief spreads panic among Christians, orders them to “leave Qusayr"

An exodus of Christians is taking place in Western Syria: the Christian population has fled the city of Qusayr, near Homs, following an ultimatum issued by the military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba.

This is what local sources told Vatican news agency Fides, pointing out that since the conflict broke out, only a thousand of the city’s ten thousand faithful, were left and they are now being forced to flee immediately. Some of the city’s mosques have issued the message again, announcing from the minarets: “Christians must leave Qusayr within six days, ending Friday.” The ultimatum therefore expired on 8 June and spread fear among the Christian population which had started to regain hope as a result of the presence of the Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio, who stopped off in Qusayr for a week to “pray and fast in the name of peace, right in the midst of conflict.”

The reasons for this ultimatum remain a mystery. Some say it is necessary in order to protect faithful from further suffering; other sources reveal “a continuity in discrimination and selective repression.” Others still claim that Christians have openly expressed their loyalty to the state and this is why the opposition army is chasing them away. Now Christian families in Qusayr have begun their exodus as displaced persons, towards the surrounding valleys and rural areas. Some have taken refuge in parents’ and friends’ homes in Damascus. Very few families have courageously decided to stay behind in their birth city but who knows what fate will meet. Fides sources have reiterated that groups of Salafi Islamic extremists within the armed opposition consider Christians as “infidels”; they confiscate their belongings, carry out mass executions and are ready to declare a “denominational war”.

A federal judge sentenced a Pakistani-born Chicago taxi driver on Friday to 7 1/2 years in prison for attempting to send money to a terrorist with alleged links to al-Qaida, telling the 58-year-old he had violated a citizenship oath made to God promising never to do harm to the United States.. . .

Khan pleaded guilty in February to one count of attempting to provide material support to terrorism. His plea agreement recommended a relatively lenient five- to eight-year sentence — well short of the 15-year maximum — in a concession for Khan's willingness to cooperate with authorities.

Judge James Zagel mostly struck a calm, professorial tone in his remarks before imposing a sentence. But he grew angry as he began talking about the oath Khan took when he became a U.S. citizen in 1988, the grizzled judge noting he had administered that oath himself hundreds of times.

"He raised his hand and swore to God he would not act against this country's interests," Judge Zagel said about Khan. That he had violated that oath, Zagel said, was a "profoundly aggravating factor."

There’s little doubt that the presumed June 4 killing of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, by an American drone in Pakistan would constitute a major victory in the drive to destroy the terrorist organization’s traditional leadership. Yet even as repeated losses in the Afghan-Pakistani border region have battered the top of al-Qaeda’s pyramid, new examples of difficult-to-detect threats continue to multiply from its much broader base. This week, as new allegations arose that French and foreign intelligence services failed to appreciate the terrorism threat posed by extremist Mohamed Merah before he launched his March killing spree in Toulouse, French security officials tell TIME that a growing number of aspiring jihadis appear to be sharing Merah’s stealthy route toward violent radicalism.

“These are people who, like Merah, progress into radicalism largely on their own, then decide to travel to Pakistan by their own means for what they expect will be training and confirmation as true jihadi,” says a high-ranking French antiterrorism official. “In contrast to earlier waves, these newer volunteers are organizing trips by themselves, without help from extremist networks that set things in the past. That obviously makes identifying these new radicals and their intentions more difficult — and intervening to interrupt their travel and training plans, a bigger challenge.”

The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

The new human rights reports--purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered--are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.

For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011 and instead referred the public to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report – a full two years behind the times – or to the annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was released last September and covers events in 2010 but not 2011.

Leonard Leo, who recently completed a term as chairman of the USCIRF, says that removing the sections on religious freedom from the State Department's Country Reports on Human Roghts is a bad idea.

Since 1998, when Congress created USCIRF, the State Department has been required to issue a separate yearly report specifically on International Religious Freedom.

But a section reporting on religious freedom has also always been included in the State Department's legally required annual country-by-country reports on human rights--that is, until now.

And this is the first year the State Department would have needed to report on the effect the Arab Spring has had on religious freedom in the Middle East--had its reports, as always before, included a section on religious freedom.

“The commission that I served on has some real concerns about that bifurcation, because the human rights reports receive a lot of attention, and to have pulled religious freedom out of it means that fewer people will obtain information about what’s going on with that particular freedom or right. So you don’t have the whole picture because they split it up now,” Leo told CNSNews.com.. . .
The 2010 International Religious Freedom Report is notably missing some important information--the two-year old report contains no mention of the violence, murder and mayhem directed at Christians and other minorities in Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

However, the less well-known 2012 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom does take note of the Arab Spring.

-- In 2011, in Egypt, Coptic Christians were among 25 people massacred during a demonstration over an Islamist attack on a church.

-- In the month of January 2012 alone, the Islamist group Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths in Nigeria – 42 of them Catholics killed at church on Christmas Day. In 2011, it killed more than 500 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states of Nigeria.

During Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi’s rule, they were at risk of arrest, indefinite detention, torture or other ill-treatment and exploitation.

Far from changing their fate, last year’s “17 February Revolution” left Sub-Saharan Africans vulnerable to similar abuses. In fact, their situation is arguably even more precarious now in light of the prevailing security vacuum, the widespread availability of weapons, and the proliferation of armed militias acting with impunity and outside the framework of the law. Foreign nationals are now at the mercy of whichever militia hold them and have no access to justice and redress for abuses.

David (not his real name), a 42-year-old Nigerian man, told Amnesty International how one night in August 2011 a group of armed men in military dress entered his home without a warrant and beat him with sticks and gun-butts. He was then shot in the leg.

He was beaten again in detention. He recalled how one night in December 2011, he was dragged out of his cell by a group of guards, handcuffed, suspended from a metal gate and beaten with a water pipe.

David is still languishing in jail with no contact with his family. “I have lived and worked in many countries, but Libya now is the worst,” he said. “Here, you don’t know who is police, who are armed gangs, and there is no-one to help you.”

In another detention centre, a Chadian national showed the scars on his back, which he said were from beatings with wooden sticks and metal rods in March 2012. He explained that he was punished for trying to escape. His cellmates also complained that the guards occasionally beat them for “mistakes” such as requesting medical treatment, complaining about lack of hygiene or inquiring about their fate.

A group of detainees recounted how a Nigerian man was beaten to death in the centre in early May 2012.

Even though the violence and abuses faced by foreign nationals in Libya have been well documented, people are still driven there out of desperation and a desire to escape persecution or poverty.

In southern Libya, local officials and residents said that new arrivals enter the country’s porous and largely uncontrolled southern borders every day. They mainly use two routes: through Sabha for those coming from western Africa, or through Kufra for those arriving from Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.

Migrants have spoken to Amnesty International of their long and dangerous journeys.

Some said that they had been abandoned in the middle of the desert by smugglers. Left without a compass and kilometres away from the nearest city, they were forced to finish their trip on foot, under the scorching sun.

A 24-year-old man from Cameroon, who has been in Libya for three months, said that as his family’s sole breadwinner, he was forced to leave home due to the lack of job opportunities there.

Two weeks after his arrival in Libya, a group of armed men in plain clothes arrested him for entering the country without a visa, and he has been held ever since. He complained about being forced into labour while in detention. Every day he is forced to do odd jobs, including offloading munitions.

A Malian man held at the same detention centre described being “a modern-day slave” – forced to work, subjected to racist insults and beaten for “disobeying” his captors.

In other detention centres, foreign nationals described being offered labour schemes, which pay wages for their work. In other cases, detainees are released into the custody of a Libyan employer. Some complained about not being paid or being paid lower rates than originally promised. A senior official in Benghazi admitted that detention centres for irregular migrants were becoming a “business”.

One such centre in Gharyan is run by a local militia. It holds more than 1,000 foreign nationals from Sub-Saharan African countries including Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Chad.

Most of the detainees were arrested at nearby checkpoints as they were making their way to the capital Tripoli, some 100 kilometres to the north.

At Gharyan, men, women and children are held in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.

In fact, at all the detention centres Amnesty International visited – in Tripoli, Ganfouda and Kufra – administrators and guards complained about limited resources. Several were not paid salaries and relied on the work of “volunteers”.

Libya does not recognize the right to seek asylum, and has yet to sign the UN Convention on Refugees. This means that in practice asylum-seekers and refugees are treated like irregular migrants.

Detention centre officials do acknowledge that nationals from Eritrea and Somalia cannot be forcibly returned to their home countries. However, no uniform approach exists for addressing the situation of individuals in need of international protection.

In Gharyan detention centre, Somalis and Eritreans are released once their embassies confirm their nationality and sign “attestations” – a highly problematic practice for those fleeing persecution in their home country. The prison director told us that if these detainees are re-arrested they are “fined” 1,000 dinars (around US$780). No money, no freedom.

Just like during Colonel al-Gaddafi’s rule, European countries continue to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in Libya when they help to stem the flow of migrants to their shores.

In the meantime, asylum-seekers and migrants are left to languish indefinitely in Libyan detention centres, where they remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Afghanistan: Suicide bombings at a bazaar leave at least 22 civilians killed and 50 more wounded

Afghanistan — At least 22 civilians were killed after two suicide bombers detonated explosives attached to their bodies at a bazaar in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province Wednesday, officials said.

The incident also wounded more than 50 civilians, according to Ahmad Javed Faisal, a spokesman for Kandahar’s governor. The market, located on the main highway leading to Pakistan, is often used as a resting spot or parking lot for drivers carrying supplies for foreign troops. The drivers also deliver to the key U.S. base in southern Afghanistan, further down the same road.

Some of the supply drivers were among the casualties of the suicide bombings, a provincial official said by phone.

The target of the attack was unclear. Faisal said there were no Afghan or foreign troops at the market at the time of the attack to suggest that they were the target of the bombers.

China: 12 children injured after staff at an Islamic school set off explosives during police raid

Staff at a religious school in heavily Muslim far western China set off explosives to fend off a police raid Wednesday and 12 children were burned, state media reported.

The Tianshan news portal for the Xinjiang region said the 12 were hospitalized but didn't say how badly they were hurt. Three police and two of the three staff at the school in Hotan city were also injured, it said.

Calls to the Hotan Public Security Bureau rang unanswered Wednesday. The Tianshan report said 54 kids were at the school when police raided it.

Germany: Neighbors witness Muslim man shout 'Allahu Akbar' and behead his wife while she is still alive

A German man was seen atop his roof, a knife in one hand and his wife's head in the other this morning.

The unidentified 32-year-old man allegedly screamed "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic, before decapitating his wife on the roof of his five-story apartment, according to a translation of the Berliner Morgenpost. Police described the suspect as mentally ill.

Neighbors said the man and his wife were arguing loudly before they were seen on the rooftop. The man reportedly sharpened his knife and then beheaded the victim while she was still alive.

Denmark: 4 Muslims guilty of terrorist plot against newspaper that published cartoons about Muhammad

A Danish court has found four men guilty of plotting to kill a large number of people at a newspaper in revenge for its publication in 2005 of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The men, three Swedish citizens and a Tunisian, had pleaded not guilty to the charges, though one of them had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of weapons.

They were arrested in a joint Danish-Swedish police operation at the end of 2010, were found guilty on the main charge of terrorism.. . .

The convicted men were Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, a Tunisian citizen, Munir Awad, a Swedish citizen born in Lebanon, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, a Swedish citizen born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Egyptian father, and Sahbi Ben Mohamed Zalouti, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin.

A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in Iran, promoting anti-Semitism and memorializing Adolf Hitler, apparently with the approval of the Iranian government and its censors.

The site, Nazicenter.ir, features videos of Nazi leaders and pictures of Hitler, and praises the Third Reich for nearly conquering the Western world. It also includes a public forum whose members routinely discuss their hatred of the Jewish people.

The site’s primary goal, its administrators write, is to confront the “story of the Holocaust, which without a doubt has been taken advantage of in contemporary history.”

Iran’s Islamic regime strictly regulates all forms of communication. Hundreds of websites have been banned, and Iranians’ online access to the free world is severely restricted. But a Nazi propaganda website is consistent with the proclamations of Iran’s military and political leaders, who have both denied the existence of the Nazi Holocaust and called for the destruction of Israel.

The chief commander of the Iranian armed forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, announced the doctrine of the Islamic regime in a recent speech. “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause,” he said, “and that is the full annihilation of Israel.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that should be cut out. And Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly denied the Holocaust occurred.

Anti-terrorism squad: ISI of Pakistan created Indian Mujahideen to spread terror in India

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has, for the first time, said that Indian Mujahideen (IM) is a creation of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI). This was mentioned in the 13/7 triple blasts chargesheet. This is the first time that any police agency in the country has openly said that IM has been created by the ISI.

Several police agencies had earlier said that IM was a splinter faction of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was banned in 2001. The IM was banned on June 2, 2010.

In its 4,478-page chargesheet against the four arrested accused filed before a special MCOCA court on May 25, the ATS said, "The IM has been expressly created by (the) ISI of Pakistan ostensibly to spread terror in this country through Indian front outfits."

David Wood, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, author of "Did Muhammad Exist?", receive death threats

Bestselling author Robert Spencer, director of the popular website, Jihad Watch and the author of the newly-released book Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into the Obscure Origins of Islam published by ISI Books was threatened with a violent death for theorizing that the prophet of Islam, Muhammad never existed.

Threats of beheadings and stabbings were sent to Robert Spencer via Twitter from a Muslim Australian man who goes by 'abdulhakim' on Twitter on May 30. Tweets from 'abdulhakim' who's twitter handle is @83_amira stated: "1,200 of your books were burnt in Australia yesterday by me Cause you a liar, lucky you are miles & miles away", and "slandering the prophet is not freedom of speech you dog, scumbag.I would not slash u, but cut your head off and hang it on the White House."Several more threats from the same twitter account were sent that called for killing kill David Wood, a blogger and Teaching Fellow in Philosophy as well as blogger, Pamela Geller which said, " she needs to be hung or slaughtered because of her hatred."

The following day tweets from 'Adam' who goes by @allahuakbar12 supported these death threats by tweeting to Spencer: "Its your fault you brought it upon yourself." Another twitter account in favor of violent jihad against Islam's critics, @frigidfire23 said, "That man would do humanity a great favor!Maybe he should pay you a visit too.World would be much better place without u 2!"The twitter account @83_amira has since been suspended.

In what is amounting to a worldwide silencing campaign against any critical examination of the religion of Islam itself or of the theory that existence of the prophet of Islam threats to silence honest inquiries or critical debates are going without media notice.Attempts to muzzle free speech should not be tolerated anywhere in the world.

Did Muhammad Exist? meticulously examines historical records, archaeological findings, and pioneering new scholarship to reconstruct what we can know about Muhammad, the Qur'an, and the early days of Islam.The evidence Spencer presents challenges the most fundamental assumptions about Islam's origins--assumptions made by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Robert Spencer is the author of several widely acclaimed books about Islam, including the New York Times bestsellers The Truth about Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). He is a columnist for FrontPage Magazine and the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.Spencer holds a master's degree in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history in depth for more than three decades.